


A sociopathic need to tell lies of omission

by Ethel09



Category: White Collar
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-28
Updated: 2015-04-28
Packaged: 2018-03-26 06:00:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 974
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3839746
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ethel09/pseuds/Ethel09
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Elizabeth makes an enlightening blunder.<br/></p>
            </blockquote>





	A sociopathic need to tell lies of omission

**Author's Note:**

  * For [love2imagine](https://archiveofourown.org/users/love2imagine/gifts), [ayam](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ayam/gifts).



Elizabeth opened the door to Neal and hugged him fiercely, which surprised him a little, but made him feel warm inside.

"Oh Neal, I'm so glad you're safe, and so sorry about what happened."

Noticing his limp, she made him sit on the couch, still holding his arm.

"Don't be sorry, El. I'm glad to be back. Peter saved me, again. I'm the one who should be sorry he had to take so many risks. You must have been so worried."

"I was, but there was no other way. And I know that he'd never have forgiven himself if something had happened to you just because he had made the error of keeping that map. He was in such a state when Collins found it the house!"

"What are you talking about? What map?" Neal seemed genuinely confused and realization dawned on Elizabeth.

"Oh no. He still hasn't told you, has he?"

"Told me what?"

Elizabeth was appalled. She took a deep breath and said resolutely :  
"Peter recorded and studied the sounds of his phone call with you. Then he found your location and was so excited that he marked it on a map. And Collins found it when he searched our house. That's how he knew where you were."

Neal was speechless. Peter hadn't told him anything about that. He had let him think that he had just followed Collins. But he'd betrayed Ellen's trust, and his, by recording the call. He felt a sudden burst of anger. He had been happy in the island. He and Maya had just been discovering each other. And Peter had wrecked his attempt to build up a life of his own.

And all this, while letting him believe that he was the hero of the day, who had selflessly run to his rescue. But if not for him and his use of the pager number he’d given Ellen, no one would have ever found him. Macleish had lived there for years without being exposed.

Breaking the heavy silence, Neal said at last, "I think I should go. I need time to process that… information."

"I understand. I'm sorry, Neal. Don't be too mad at him. Just keep in mind how important your opinion is to him. That's why he found it difficult to tell you."

Neal just nodded.

"Will you confront him about it?"

"I don't know. Will you tell him you told me?"

"I suppose I will. I have to"

"Well, I think I'll just wait until you do and see what he will say."

He squeezed her hand, as if to reassure her, then took his leave. While walking back home, he decided that he'd never speak to Peter about the map if he himself didn't do it first. He wanted to know what Peter would choose to do. But he knew how difficult it was for the man to admit his own mistakes. They'd probably just pretend that everything was back to normal, or what passed for normal.

After his departure, Elizabeth sank into the couch, deeply worried.

Had she been right to tell Neal the truth ? But she had been so sure that her honest Peter would have already explained everything to Neal that she had begun to talk about the map. And then, it was too late. She wasn't as skilled as Neal with misdirection, nor would she have wanted to lie.

All this was wrong.

She had always known that admitting his errors was not Peter's forte. But this was not like the Peter she knew and loved.

He has just done to Neal what he always reproached Neal for: he had told him a lie of omission, he had misled him by telling half truths. And he had done it about something that had involved life-threatening circumstances for Neal, and had altered his life once again in a drastic manner.

Why was it so important for him not to fall from his pedestal in front of Neal ? Why did he need so badly to always keep the high ground with the young man ?

And why had he been that hell-bent on finding him in the first place? What had he planned to do once he had found him? He hadn't said anything about that. If one thought a bit about it, it was clear that if Macleish hadn't happened to be in that island, which had led to the final deal, the only future Neal would have had, once found, was prison, whoever it was who'd have found him, Collins or Peter.

Peter had begun the hunt even before he had achieved anything to have the new charges against Neal dropped. Then it had nearly led to a disaster, because he had kept the map showing his location.

Both things because the truth was that he couldn't bear not knowing where Neal was.

The map in particular, hidden but kept preciously, as if it was a link to Neal, was a revealing sign of some kind of obsessive behavior. Keeping it had not just been a momentary lack of carefulness.

Peter was not only deeply attached to Neal, admiring his skills and in hope of redeeming him. He was somehow obsessed by him. It had come close to costing Neal his life, and could as well be Peter's downfall in the future. Elizabeth knew that for Neal's sake, he was ready to take every risk with his career.

Elizabeth was conflicted. She had come to be very fond of Neal, because Peter did, and because it was impossible not to. Yet she had more and more the feeling that the bond that attached Peter to him was both too strong and too twisted not to be dangerous.

Anyway, all what she could do for the moment was to try and protect Peter from himself, and be at his side.

**Author's Note:**

> That map found in Peter's house by Collins gave rise to many discussions. It's obviously a flaw in the script, coming from the necessity to have Peter be the one smart enough to find Neal, with another, bad character coming after him in the same time. But as a consequence, it leads to a goof very OOC for Peter.
> 
> Reading Slipstream77's excellent story ‘Break Everything’ in FF.net, I saw that the author had explained why Peter had kept the map by a momentary lack of focus, out of the joy of finding his friend's location. 
> 
> But in her more optimistic universe, Peter tells the truth to Neal about the map. Which he never did in the series. 
> 
> In Cape Verde, when Mozzie asks him why he's come, he only says that he felt responsible for what would happen to Neal, as he was the one who had sent him away. A perfect lie by omission.
> 
> Another thing never explained is why Peter wants so much to find Neal after sending him away himself to protect him, and with apparently no new solution to keep him from prison.
> 
> That's why I imagined that explanation about this and about the map, based upon a darker point of view on Peter's relation to Neal. It's possible to imagine that from that point, El gradually realized that something was wrong, that Peter was somehow obsessed with Neal. This could explain (if not excuse) her attitude in season 4 and 5.


End file.
